As it is generally known, various specific types of distributed application systems transfer embedded content between nodes during their normal operation. The specific type of embedded “objects” transferred between nodes depends on the specific application. Examples of application systems that transfer embedded content objects between nodes include messaging systems that transfer messages with attachments, relational databases that use replication, and Web applications transferring XML data with embedded elements.
In such existing systems, one problem that arises is the duplication of large embedded objects that are transferred between nodes. When a document containing embedded content is transferred from a sending system to a receiving system, the embedded objects have to be sent to the receiving system regardless of whether they already exist on the receiving system or not. As a result, resources are wasted transferring redundant data between the nodes, and completion of the transfer operation is unnecessarily delayed while the redundant object(s) are transferred.
It would accordingly be desirable to have an automated solution that enables a distributed application to prevent transfer and duplication of redundantly referenced embedded objects across different nodes.